LAS CRUCES >> When Monroe Seibel first set up his table of exotic produce at the Las Cruces Farmers & Crafts Market, there was no waiting list.

Not only does such a list exist now, but it has grown so long that it became unmanageable for the award-winning market's new manager and board.

Officials announced via the market's website that they are "no longer accepting the names of potential new vendors due to the length of the waiting list."

That freeze, market manager Duane Mosley said, is only temporary.

"We inherited a rather large list when our nonprofit took over operations down here," said Mosley as he strolled through the market on a recent Wednesday. "So I'm working through it now to find out who on that list still wants to participate, then giving them first dibs."

Mosley said he recently sent emails to every person on the waiting list, all 205 of them. Some had been on the list, his records show, for more than two years.

Established in 1971, the market was operated by the city for much of its history. That changed officially in July when the nonprofit organization, called the Farmers & Crafts Market of Las Cruces Inc., took control.

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Mosley gave them a week to respond. As of last week, he had received 30 responses, some from people who had moved out of the state.

The hope is that soon Mosley will have a trimmed waiting list, allowing him and the governing board to fill any vacant vendor spots along the well-worn, seven-block stretch of Main Street.

The list will be open by January, Mosley said.

Vendors said the freeze has had no noticeable affect on their business.

"We will sell out Saturdays," said Seibel, one of more than 300 vendors on site during its busiest mornings.

Once they arrive at the front of the waiting list, perspective vendors must attend an orientation course and have the proper permits, depending on what they sell, and be area residents.

Generally, Mosley said, they start as what the market savvy call "floaters," meaning they don't have a permanent spot every week, but can find a 10-foot-by-10-foot section to squeeze into because not everybody shows up every week.

Dodds Cupit, who sells carved pottery, waited six months till he landed his permanent spot. Now he is one of seven block coordinators, overseeing 63 vendors in his immediate vicinity.

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